Grass Is Greener In This Family Firm!

Jonathan Gallagher, the youngest of three Gallagher brothers, founded Easigrass more than three decades ago and the business continues to go from strength to strength.

A former tennis coach, Jonathan played on a variety of different sporting surfaces throughout the 1980s. Jonathan’s experience on the grounds on which he taught and played led him to realise there was a gap in the market for providing maintenance of these surfaces. He soon went on to set up a maintenance company, which within no time had expanded to re-surfacing services for tennis courts in the UK.

Business grew rapidly, and Jonathan soon established an excellent reputation of his business in the tennis court industry.

There was major development within the sports surface industry at the time, with the introduction of artificial grass. Jonathan identified this as an opportunity to explore, and so passed on the reins of the maintenance side of the business to his eldest brother, Timothy, in order to focus his attention on artificial grass development.

Timothy Gallagher has since built up one of the leading sports maintenance businesses in the UK, and continues to maintain surfaces for Jonathan’s old clients, as well as a growing customer base which includes local authorities, universities, colleges and schools.

Jonathan moved on to work closely with all the leading European artificial grass manufacturers in order to learn all the techniques and installation processes of supplying and fitting this new product. He then spent ten years travelling across the UK and abroad, fitting installations to perfect this skill and gain invaluable experience. His work took him beyond the tennis market, with developments in other sports such as soccer, hockey and rugby.

Easigrass now installs FIFA, IRB and FIH approved fields throughout the world.

Jonathan seized the opportunity to add artificial grass to his expanding enterprise and worked very closely with all leading European fake grass manufacturers, learning all the techniques and installation processes.

He focused on perfecting these installation procedures and gained huge experience working with all the leading manufacturers over the following ten years throughout the UK and abroad.

Ten years ago Jonathan’s second-eldest brother, Anthony, joined the Easigrass team. Anthony Gallagher brought together many years of experience in sales, construction and marketing. This was at a time when the only grass available for domestic setting installation was the same type and style as that was being fitted on sports fields.

Anthony saw the opportunity to introduce a product, which would closely resemble real grass. He was the first person in the UK to introduce dead grass infill into artificial grass to give the product a more authentic and natural look.

Securing the TM on the brand, as well as European patent on the iconic grass-covered Smart car, Anthony also became the first to gain entry into judged garden competition with artificial grass at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2010. Easigrass was awarded Silver Guilt for its show garden in the first year.

In 2012 a determined Anthony entered an Easigrass garden in the prestigious competition again and was rewarded with the highest accolade in the garden world by winning a Gold Medal. Easigrass is extremely proud to be the first and only artificial grass company to be awarded gold by the Royal Horticultural Society.

“This is a measure of how perfect our craftsmanship is,” Anthony explained on winning the award in 2012. “We are delighted to be recognised as a quality company by independent assessors who are held in the highest regard within the horticultural world.”

The mass exposure of Easigrass and its products as a result of its incredible success generated a vast number of enquiries from around the UK and abroad. The Easigrass National Franchise Network was established to meet demand, which became too great for the central London office to meet on its own.

In the following five years, Anthony secured a 30-strong franchise network in Britain. This ensured customers received the same level of experience, knowledge, skill and professionalism as they had from the headquarters in London.

As part of its franchise plan, Easigrass trains all partners in the latest techniques of quality synthetic grass installation where products are designed to last.

As well as having a franchise network here in the UK, Easigrass is delighted to have established an International partner network with partners situated in South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the Balearic Islands, Ireland and New Zealand.

As part of a continued drive and commitment to quality, Easigrass fit sports installations internationally. The company has a specifically dedicated group of technicians who can be dispatched anywhere in the world to install domestic grass.

Always looking to expand its network, Easigrass has firmly proven itself as one of world’s leading artificial landscape providers. Easigrass is the most recognised and trusted brand within the industry and like other successful family firms has innovation at its core. Add to the product the desire to establish Easigrass as a household name, a great network supported by the vision, drive and passion of the family, it is no wonder that Easigrass is going from strength to strength.

Visit www.easigrass.com to find out more